Weekly update

Hi all,
So this weeks update is slightly more interesting...I guess :). This last weekend I went pumpking patching with Jenn. We went out to Snohomish and went to a pumpkin patch that she use to go to when she was younger. That morning however it was raining buckets so by the afternoon when we got there the whole place was a giant bog. It was fun though.
I'm getting reved up for San Fransisco in two weekends. That should be fun having Halloween down there. Jenn and I are still figuring out what we will do, but the general idea we have is that we are going to a raging party Halloween night. Other than that we will play it by ear.
Not much else to report. It's getting colder and more rainy and I keep hoping that snow will start falling on the mountains so the slopes will open. More next week.

Portland and beyond

So I completed the Portland Marathon again alittle over a week ago ... and it was pretty awsome yet again! I have already signed up for next year's which happens to take place on 10/10/10! I'll have to train harder so that I can get my 3:10 goal. It seems only fair that on 10/10/2010 that I get that time.
Work is going pretty well. I just passed my one year at the Pro Club on 9/24 so I got a little bump in pay and all that. I've cut back on my group lessons and I recently started filling up my private lessons so that is good as well.
Other than that I've got a trip with Jenn coming up. We are going down to San Fransisco at the end of the month as a little birthday gift to her. So that should be fun. I'll try and make this a weekly installment from now on. Until next Monday I hope you are all doing well.

He lives!!!!

Hey all (well anyone who happens to check this anymore),
So it's been nearly a year since my last posting. I guess I just kind of fell out of my blogging since I came back to the states. I still really miss Japan at times (in particular at work where I get plenty of time to think.), but I've been doing many things to keep me busy and not thinking about Japan all the time. Lets see since my last post I've run another marathon and several other races including one called the Ragnar Relay. The relay was tons of fun and I hope to do it again next summer. You run it in teams of either 6 or 12 (6 man teams are ultras and obviously each runner has to do about double what the regular team does). I ended up being the lead off leg on my 12 person team. Since it was a 24 hour race I started the run at 10am then had a break after my leg until 4:30pm then had a break until 1am when I did my last leg. It was crazy fun to be running in the middle of the night and to top it all off I ended up running mile 3-4 in a lightning storm! Obviously I must be nuts to enjoy that, but what can I say @.@; In the topic of running I will be completing my third marathon tomorrow (second Portland) and hope to run it in sub 3:15.
Besides my running antics this last Spring I interviewed and was accepted into the Masters in Teaching program at UW. It certainly took them long enough to recognize they wanted me! The truly funny bit of the whole thing is this year I didn't even officially apply again. Last year they just kept my application in the pool and carried it over to this years pool of applicants. So I'll be starting my master's next Spring and in the mean time I'm taking some classes to prepare for the program. This term I'm in an photography class and next term I hope to enroll in one or two linguistic classes (I'll be going for my ELL certification in conjunction with my masters on the off chance I get the opportunity to travel to Japan again to teach).
Other than that I've been working lots and moved into a new townhouse up in Shoreline (just north of Seattle). I hope all of you people in Japan and around the world are doing well. I'll try and remember to write on here again after the race and maybe even on a regular basis again!

Hey Everyone! So yesterday was my birthday. Thank you all who sent me a message :). I gave myself a birthday gift and picked up my new Prius yesterday. I am soo excite to have it finally. Here is a picture of me at the dealership with my beautiful car.

12.8 Kph

Yep I can run 12.8 Km per hour! Just start calling me "speedy." Lol, I did the Portland Marathon this last Sunday. I ran the race in 3 hours 17 minutes and 48 seconds, which is about 7:33 per mile. If you are interested in seeing pictures of me suffering look me up on the Portland Marathon page. My race number was 343 or you can plug in my last name. Cheers.

Long long time ...

So it's been much to long since my last post and this post will not be long enough to provide an adequite update, but here's what you get for now. I have been away from Japan going on two months now and still miss it a lot. It seems like at least three or four times a week I fall asleep thinking about some aspect of Japan.
As far as me moving on over here I am still about a month away from hearing from the UW's graduate program. I recently got a job at Pro Sports, a huge athletic club in Bellevue near Microsoft. It is a pretty sweet deal because I am able to use the facilities as a full member and while I'm full time there I can get medical coverage. I am currently looking for a place in Seattle to live so I don't have to commute so far. Today my Prius came in and I'll be picking it up probably this weekend. When I get it I'll post a picture of it. So thats a very brief summary of what's up. I'll try not to be lazy over the next week and post a bit more.
Miss you all lots.

Summer is almost done ...

... and I still have no clue where my life will take me from here. I still have my hat in for the grad school program at the UW, but the more I think about it the more I think it is a vain hope to get in this second round. If that ends up being the case then there are many places my life can go to. Hopefully though the path will take me across the Pacific sometime in the not too distant future.
Work is still going ok. I've gotten out and socialized a bit more with my co-workers and I've been having a lot of hour to keep me occupied during the week. Tomorrow is off, but I'm visiting with a family friend so it should be fun.
Last week I broke down and got an iphone. So far it is keeping me happy. I'm sure there are other devices I could have gone with, but being impressed with mac architecture I opted to stick with that rather than an unknown. The number is still 206-777-5278 and of course my e-mails are the same in case you happen to want to contact me. To those of you still at Shirasagi I'm still planning on calling, but with the plan I have I need to find a night/weekend so that I can chat a bit. Taube/Julian please tell me when would be a good time :). Miss you all.